


Anything you feel, I can feel too

by kalika_999



Series: Jack and Brock's misadventures [20]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, HYDRA Husbands, Light Angst, M/M, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-16
Updated: 2017-09-16
Packaged: 2018-12-30 07:39:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12103911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kalika_999/pseuds/kalika_999
Summary: “Ma, they get hurta lot.  Is my soulmate,” His tongue seemed to have an issue over the word, “an idiot?”





	Anything you feel, I can feel too

**Author's Note:**

> Soulmate AU where two people can share pain.

Jack Rollins’ life changed when he was only eight. He started to notice random cuts and bruises around his arms and sometimes on his legs; sometimes they appeared around his shins and his knuckles would turn dark. They startled him when they appeared but they didn’t hurt too much after the initial shock.

Well most of the time.

Sometimes his head would pull back abruptly and he’d feel the fine trickle of blood from his nose, it worried him a little, or the random black eye, at times a painful swollen lip came along.

When he asked his mother about it she pulled him close and explained soulmates to him and the bond they had to feel each other’s pain. 

He remembers glancing at her suspiciously, green eyes trying to catch her in some trick or joke but she only smiled softly at him.

“Ma, they get hurt _a lot_. Is my soulmate,” His tongue seemed to have an issue over the word, “an idiot?”

That earned him a laugh from her and she hugged him close, “No Jackie, they just get hurt a lot. It could be from playing rough, or maybe they’re clumsy. They might fight with others, I’m not sure sweetie. I’m sure someone is looking out for them.”

Jack hoped so, he couldn’t bear the idea that someone was out there just for him but had no one to take care of them like his parents have.

He also was more careful with himself, he didn’t want to worry his soulmate if he got himself hurt.

*****

Somewhere else in the world Brock Rumlow learns about soulmates through his own two eyes.

No one really teaches him anything; school is boring, the orphanage he’s staying at call him a ‘problem child’ and he gets into fights sometimes with some of the older kids. He’s told they’d put him somewhere else if other people would take him. 

He just shrugs and goes back to whatever he feels like doing.

He doesn’t really have many friends because he’s learned pretty early on that sometimes kids get moved around and the next thing you know your best friend gets adopted and you’ll never see them again. There’s a pair of them though, two that are ‘problems’ like him. 

He gets into fights a lot more often because the little one keeps running his mouth, he can barely breathe but the second someone picks on the bigger one with no arm, the smaller one goes crazy. 

It was funny at first to him, watching them when they came in together and wouldn’t stop holding hands even though they kept being told they had to, no one was going to adopt them together. But the little one had spunk and always stared down whoever was saying those things, the bigger one was alright, Brock thought something was up with his head but he just didn’t want to talk.

Later on he found out their families were in a building fire and it’s how the bigger one lost his arm, from a fall out of a window when he pulled the other out, and it’s also how everyone found out Steve was Bucky’s soulmate. Steve tells him later that you can’t separate them, these..soulmates, it’s a law or something unless you want to leave them. It’s why they’re threatened to be adopted apart but there’s no follow through.

“It’s like we’re best friends forever.” Steve clarifies, looking up at Bucky at his side, “Right Buck?”

Bucky has long shaggy brown hair that falls over his face and Brock doesn’t much blame him for not wanting to talk much but the boy smiles gently and nods at Steve, their hands squeezing together and it makes Brock feel nice.

The night he finds out about soulmates, he can’t sleep because he keeps thinking about if there’s someone like that for him too. He never gets hurt, aside from fighting, he might get a hit on his shoulder or on his knee but that’s the only contact he has with his soulmate if that’s where his random bumps are coming from. 

One day he gets a sharp sting to his finger while he’s watching a movie, he lifts up his hand and there’s a red line appearing out of the blue, blood slowly dotting along as it began to seep out. He knows for sure that was from his soulmate and he smiles a little to himself as he shakes his head at his finger.

He thinks it’s kind of like Bucky and Steve, where Steve gets into lots of fights and Bucky doesn’t get into any, says he doesn’t want to hurt Stevie and they balance out in their little way. Does his soulmate do the same thing? Does his soulmate even like him because he fights? He feels a little bad because his hurt goes to his soulmate, he knows bloody noses go to Bucky when Steve gets hit so it must happen to his too. 

He starts saying sorry under his breath when he cleans himself up, the moment Steve catches him do it when he’s helping with some bandages he just smiles at him and nods telling him they know. 

Brock hopes Steve’s right.

*****

Brock doesn’t know yet but Jack begins to carry his battle wounds with pride, it tells him that his soulmate is alive and kicking. Occasionally he gets startled from a hit to the face or some random act of violence while he’s doing homework or watching television but he’s getting used to it.

He sports cuts and bruises like they’re an accessory, he doesn’t worry about them because he has to believe his person is safe despite all the damage. 

No one wants to mess with him in high school over fears his soulmate might suddenly show up and beat everyone up like an angry hurricane they seem to be. It’s not that Jack needs it, he grows up tall and maybe a little lanky but he’s athletic and despite lingering pains from punch outs via his one and only, he barely notices them once he starts doing school track and joins the soccer team.

Life is generally great with the balance he’s figured out.

*****

When Brock is fifteen it just happens.

Whatever pain his soulmate endures, the shin kicks, the falls, the elbows to wherever, it’s nothing compared to _this_ pain.

It comes in with a bang and like a swift punch to the stomach, so strong and so real he wakes up with a start and he can’t breathe because the air is knocked out of him. Unlike the pain of being hit, this pain is encompassing and all _real_ , it’s terrifying and it consumes him entirely. He’s never felt anything like this before and it hurts, it hurts so much that he doesn’t know what to do so he screams and he keeps on screaming. 

Brock can’t stop it, it goes on for hours, he hates it so much and doesn’t want it to be here. He’s never cried a lot but now he can’t stop, he can’t feel anything else but this, he can’t process people staring at him with sympathetic eyes because those gazes understand something where he doesn’t. 

Bucky and Steve sandwich him in his cot and try to make things better, try to tell him it’s alright but Brock can’t seem to stop the endless _agony_ searing through his entire soul and it feels like it’s killing him.

It doesn’t go away the next day, nor the day after that. It lingers and stays, grows and festers and lasts for days and weeks. He goes blind in one eye, has light scars around his body, they don’t hurt and he doesn’t care about them, even the one that lingers a little longer than the others at the right side of his jaw. Eventually that one too fades away, he starts to see again but it’s not the physical ones that he cares about. It’s hard for him to function the first couple of months or so but then slowly, it begins to subside and Brock is able to get out of the foggy haze of torturous sadness and misery.

He begins to function again like a somewhat normal teenager, he could finally get out of bed without wondering what the point was. The ideas and absent thoughts to just give up begin to ebb away and even though he’s able to concentrate on school again and join back up with his football team once more, the pain never really goes away entirely..it only lessens, it never actually fades.

Not until years later when Brock’s in his early 20’s.

Prior to that though, he manages as time goes on. He copes, he wonders if his soulmate is alright and tries not to worry for them and attempts to hide all of it. Steve helps and so does Bucky. They understand the most of out anyone and he’s glad they’re there for him, even when he’s angry and upset and breaking things out of frustration because he doesn’t know where his person is and wants to tell them they’re okay.

“At least you know they’re alive, the hurt won’t go away yeah but if you’re feeling it you know they’re still there and nothing happened to ‘em.” Bucky says one day when Steve’s gone to the store because now they’re adults and live together as roommates. 

Bucky gives him a careful smile because he completely understands even if Steve is always around him.

Brock looks at his friend with his own small smile and holds on to his words because it keeps him from going crazy.

*****

One day, when he’s twenty two and tucked under the hood of an old Caddy, someone walks into the garage he works at and Brock mutters that he’ll be there in a second to help him out. It’s also the second, like a blink of an eye that the pain goes away. Like a puff of soft air, it disappears and doesn’t leave a trace. Like it was never there to begin with. Just gone.

Brock pauses in confusion, inhales as he stops all actions, he breathes easier and finds the air is so clear despite the lingering smells of rubber, grease and oil. He stands upright and it’s still like that, the thin veil of emotional pain not there anymore for the first time in years.

It’s so freeing and he’s forgotten what it was like prior to all the distress, before all the sadness took over. He can’t help the surprised laugh fall out of him, still wondering what happened but he’s happy and elated.

He forgets there was someone else in the garage with him until he finally picks up the sight of a man standing at the mouth of the entrance absolutely still. When Brock can handle himself again, he blinks past the glare of brightness outside and adjusts to see he’s tall and built, all broad shoulders and handsome with soft olive green eyes and dark hair. 

The moment Brock spies the aged scar on the man’s face, his fingers reach up to touch his own jaw, recalling the scars that appeared all over his body before they eventually all faded away.

Was this who he thinks it is?

*****

After what seemed like an eternity of them looking at each other Jack suddenly took one step forward. He didn’t know who this man was, or what happened but he was his one. His _soulmate_ and he knew the second he laid eyes on him and all the pain and hurt over losing his parents suddenly seemed to melt away. It was there lingering, he knew, tucked back but more like a memory than the ongoing fog he was walking in.

He only came here by chance and he wasn’t sure it was fate leading him here or a coincidence but now that he knew in his heart who this person before him was-

He approached a little more, not sure how to introduce himself or even ask if he felt the same thing. He knew they felt something, the reaction of their eyes meeting was too strong and suddenly this person, this stranger that he didn’t even connect to less than five minutes ago was coming towards him too. 

Arms wrapped around and Jack was frozen in place, overwhelmed with the sensation of warmth and comfort. No one had been able to do this for him in a long while but here, here it was important, relaxing in his arms and Jack felt like he could finally rest. That things were okay.

Jack finally brought his arms up, holding him close, “I waited my whole life for you.” 

“Sorry you dinn’t find me sooner..”

Blinking at that, his fingers brushed along his shoulder before drawing back to stare at the man, “Why?”

“Soz I could make that hurt lessen a lil, prolly know I’m good at takin’ the hits.” He flashed him a half smile, unsure of everything despite himself. His eyes dropped away, thinking as he gazed up at him again, “I’m Brock by the way.” 

Jack’s eyes softened, own lips curving up and there was something just so settled now in his heart, Brock’s fingers brushing up to the scar along his face like he couldn’t believe it. 

In hindsight, Jack couldn’t either, “Jack.”

“This is..somethin’.”

Bringing his hands up, Jack cupped Brock’s face and stared, eyes dancing over copper golds watching him in awe, rough and worn features on a moderately stubbled face, he was beautiful and he was just for him. He couldn’t take his eyes away, fingers sliding up into a thick head of black hair and soaked it in carefully as he admired. Brock stood still for him which Jack knew enough about to know it was most likely a miracle, palms brushing along the sides of his neck, “I kept hoping you wouldn’t get into a fight you finally couldn’t get out from.”

Brock couldn’t help the smile coming up across his face, pressing a hand over Jack’s heart, “Ain’t nothin’ that woulda kept me from finally meetin’ ya. I knew it would happen, I just _felt it_. If there was anythin’ I could do to take the pain for you, I was gonna.” 

“You just did.”

It was then that Brock finally understood that soulmates could also share happiness too.

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from Empathy by Bassnectar which is a really short song I hold oddly close with my OTP's, especially between HH because I have a huge affection for headcanon talking about how deep they can connect..so much so that they can take care of one another without even speaking.


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